1. Brief Background

The Holiday Schools Programme has been initiated and developed by the Tomorrow Trust in order
to fill the gap which the lack of effective education has created for orphans and vulnerable children. The programme operates during the April, June, September and December school holidays. Children from various areas are bussed into selected schools and taught by the school teachers. The subjects focused on for the programme include English, Business Economics, Geography, Maths, Biology, Science and Accountancy. Currently this programme caters for grades 10, 11 and 12’s that fit the category of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC’S). The programme aims to improve the final matric results of the children and by so doing, creating a platform for the children to enter post secondary education and realise their dreams. The Trust identified a further gap in the education of these learners in that once they started on the programme; they lacked basic skills that should have been acquired at the foundation phase of their education. Tomorrow Trust therefore introduced a pilot programme, for grades 0, 1, 2 & 2 Bridging (foundation phase) which addressed this fundamental. The pilot programme has been a resounding success and is growing from strength to strength.

2. Senior Phase

a. Programme Structure

The Senior Phase Holiday School programme (grade 10, grade 11, and grade 12) is run during the April, July and September school Holidays in an effort to to improve on the overall academic results of OVCs and specifically have them attain matric results that are reflective of their potential.

By creating this platform for the children, they stand a better chance of entering the Tomorrow Trust Post Secondary programme that provides holistic tertiary support for the child.

The programme employs Tutors for the Holiday School periods and they assess the needs of the learners and assist in the areas that need strengthening.

b. Programme Progress

The senior phase programme is currently run in the greater Gauteng area with two schools in Johannesburg and one in Pretoria.

Sandown High

Reddam High

The Bridge Private Tuition

The Pretoria programme began on 25 March 2008 with Johannesburg schools starting on 31 March. The schools ran for 10 days finishing between 4 and 11 April 2008. Children received a full stationary pack including pens, pencils, erasers, math’s sets and scientific calculators, as well as a backpack and pencil case for them to store their stationary.

On each day the children were served breakfast on arrival as well as a cooked lunch and fruit snacks in between.

The overall programme was successful and unfolded in a most positive manner with the children gaining a broad range of knowledge and strengthening in the areas that they are finding difficulties.

A portfolio with individual commitment letters have been placed in the individual files of students at the Tomorrow Trust Office.

c. Obstacles and Difficulties

Our greatest challenge is to secure funding for the long term survival of the project. Renewing our funding from Makro for an additional three year phase of the Senior programme would be ideal as we have built a solid relationship with Makro with the Holiday School Programme for grades 10 - 12.

One of our greatest difficulties in the programme is having to turn learners away because we cannot accommodate them. As you are aware our numbers have increased dramatically since 2007 but we are now filled to capacity unless more funding is made available for more kids to access the programme.

The biggest gap we have in the programme currently is that Foundation Phase only covers learners from grade 0 to grade 2. Once these learners graduate from this phase they are only brought back into the Tomorrow Trust when they are in Grade 10.

c. Future Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the Tomorrow Trust is to have these learners become self sustainable and self empowered so that they enter the employment sector and become positive contributors to the overall South African Economy.

Tomorrow Trust Overview

The Holiday Schools Programme supports this vision by assisting learners by supplementing their schooling with sound tuition over the school holidays and thus enabling them to achieve better results at school and ultimately matric.

At the moment we only serve OVCs in Foundation Phase (Grade 0 – 2) and Senior Phase (grade 10 – 12). The problem is that the learners leave the programme after grade 2 returning only in grade 10. I am sure you concur that this is not ideal as the Trust wishes to unlock the full potential of each child and nurture it. This would only be possible if we find funding for all grades (0- 12).

We are aiming to add on one grade per year to the programme in an effort not to lose our current grade 2 learners, but rather realise and nurture the full potential within them, so that their matric results are truly reflective of what their potential is.